Didn't matter if you were calling a drug cartel or not—your international calls could have been tracked. (Shutterstock)

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Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA and its surveillance tactics may have riled people up, but the agency apparently took its cue from two other government departments: the DEA and the DoJ. For almost 10 years before 9/11 took place, the agencies secretly kept records of billions of international phone calls placed by Americans, a USA Today investigation has uncovered. Current and ex-officials involved in the clandestine program spoke to the newspaper (mostly anonymously) and say that when the surveillance was in full swing, it was collecting data for calls to more than 100 countries (one official placed the number at 116, out of 195 countries the US recognizes worldwide as independent states). The purpose of the data collection, per USA Today: to flesh out US distribution networks for international drug cartels.

The initiative took root in the '80s when the DEA wasn't making headway using undercover agents and other methods to bust up Colombian drug cartels, the newspaper reports. The call database reportedly didn't include callers' names or even the content of the calls—instead, it noted the date and time that international numbers were called, which it then attempted to cross-link back to data from other intelligence databases. AG Eric Holder is said to have halted the program in 2013 after "it was made abundantly clear ... they couldn't defend both [the DEA and NSA] programs," a Justice Department official tells the paper; the database was also allegedly "purged" by the DEA. A DoJ spokesman says the department "is no longer collecting bulk telephony metadata from US service providers"; a DEA spokesman declined comment. (Read the entire history documented in the USA Today article, including how similar the DEA program was to the NSA one.)

And people will still be Clinton or Bush, when Rand is the only one talking about this and ending this.

tpvero

Apr 9, 2015 2:14 AM CDT

We pay the bills so we have a say in what happens to us. We are taxpayers not criminals and we all should not be treated as criminals. It is interesting that all this begins in the 80s when the government decides to make it possible for crack to flood our inner cities, in the proven Iran-Contra scam. The government can not play us dirty and get away with it. The people in congress are getting paid big money for life to protect us and they are not doing their job. Congress is supposed to represent the people, not the government. Shame.